Iggy Becomes Immortal!

A friend of mine, Mary posted pictures on Facebook of her new Iggy Pop action figure her husband Doug bought her at Toys R Us. The detail on this is just amazing and looks exactly like the man himself. I can't wait to get one myself. I better hurry as I am told they are super limited.

Going On The Air?

I've always wanted to be a DJ. From the time I was a little kid I've been obsessed with the radio. Growing up my mother always played Oldies radio where I would discover many musical icons such as Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles and so much more. I took it all in and was so fascinated by what I heard.

During the early 80's when I grew up it was the big advent of MTV that continuted my love for music and opened me up to more. Not only did I get to hear the music, but I got to see it as well. MTV opened me up to other forms of music such as Hip Hop, and Heavy Metal, even Punk and New Wave at times. It was all just incredible to me.

During my teenage years I discovered college and public radio. This was another fascination of mine. These were real people, not radio entertainers playing something they were programmed to, but real people playing real music. To this day I rarely turn on commercial radio and stick with public and/or college radio. They have much to offer. 88.7 WNHU broadcasting from the University of New Haven has many great programs including and Oldies show on Friday nights. I guarantee they don't play all the normal music you hear on your local Oldies radio and play lots of forgotten gems, or songs you have not heard in many years.

My wife, a Jazz and Folk fan listens to the programs and enjoys the tremendously as do I. Their morning Jazz program makes driving the kids to school that much more relaxing. The program airs Monday thru Friday mornings and digs deep into all forms of the genre.

Over the years I have collected several thousand pieces of vinyl, and CDs. Some I have gotten rid of and some I have more than one of and some I have upgraded with better copies. As I go through my collection and pull record out to play I always think of possibly getting a show. Maybe on public radio or an online station, or creating my own. I have investigated the possibilities. I sure have enough to choose from and my collection is always growing so it certainly grow and become a reality some day.

I sit and think "what would I play?" There is so much to choose from. My extensive 80's New Wave/Brit Pop/Punk collection. Pull out all my 60s Psych rareties? Or combine the entire show to everything and anything that I like? Yeah, that sounds more like it.

I sat around a few nights ago pulling LPs and playing a track or two off them and I came up with a playlist. And this is what it looks like.

1. The Lucy Show - New Message
2. Timbuk 3 - Life Is Hard
3. The Bangles - Let It Go
4. The The - Uncertain Smile
5. The Chameleons (UK) - Tears (Full Arrangement Version)
6. The Mosquitos - That Was Then, This Is Now
7. The Sights - So Much For Everylasting Love
8. Del Amitri - Hammering Heat
9. Falling Stairs - Number School
10. Aztec Camera - The Boy Wonders (Live)
11. Love Tractor - Greedy Dog
12. Ms. John Soda - Misco

Hopefully this will actually come to fruitation. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time. And being a fan or "Pop Junkie" the playlists would be quite diverse and maybe be enjoyed by people other than myself.

Catching up with the Pop Junkie...

Well it's been a week or so since I've been really able to dedicate my self to this here blog. Needless to say I am back and have a bunch of different topics to discuss.


First on the list is some bad news has been announced as Daniel Street Club in Milford, CT is closing in January. I have had the opportunity to see some great bands perform here and the venue was quite nice. It gave a nice, small intimate feeling with the acts that had graced the stage there. I've had the pleasure of witnessing Monkees Peter Tork perform with his Shoe Suede Blues band.

The venue had the chance to host legends and up and coming hip acts such as The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The Lemonheads, The Feelies and so much more. I have read that it has been sold and will be turned into a pizza parlor. Lucky us, like Milford needs another crappy pizza place.

Speaking of the Lemonheads, Evan Dando and company will be playing Mohegan Sun Casino in the Wolf Den January 13th. I saw them last year and this is really a show not to be missed.

Being a huge Monkees fan, the next night Davy Jones makes an appearance in the same venue.

Jones shows are a little too...campy I suppose. Bad humor, mediocre versions of Monkees classics and bad solo material. Why do I continue to see him live?

Meh

It's been about a week since I have had the chance to write here. Some interesting news has happened since then. Van Halen has announced they are going to tour with none other than David Lee Roth on vocals. Should be fun for all you VH fans out there. But what I find even more interesting that yet again there is no Micheal Anthony on bass. I always thought he was important to the group. A dedicated member if you ask me. Without him, I just don't see it as being Van Halen.

A little bit of a break.

Sorry folks. As the Christmas holiday is tomorrow I have not had much time this past week to write. I've been busy with work and preparing for the day. However I do plan on returning soon.

Have a safe and Happy Christmas.

My Favorite Christmas Songs

Well, everyones got them right? Songs they love to play at Christmas time to help you bring in the Christmas spirit. Enjoy this list and check out these songs. And remember, this isn't supposed to be taked completely serious.

10. Wall of Voodoo - Shouldn't Have Given Him A Gun For Christmas

9. El Velz  - Felis Navi Nada

8. Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band - Christmas At K-Mart

7. Rudy Ray Moore - Dolemite Christmas

6. TVTV$ - Daddy Drank Our Christmas Money

5. The Dickies - Silent Night

4. The Humpers - Run, Run Rudolph

3. The Damned - There Ain't No Sanity Clause

2. Mojo Nixon - Christmas, Christmas

1. Fear - Fuck Christmas

There is it, now have a Merry Fucking Christmas!

Trash Pickin'...Again

Well, I did it again. I took today off from work to take my wife to a Dr. appointment. Of course this led to "hey, can we drop by the thrift store?" And yes, my hunt was on...again. I love digging through the CD racks of the Salvation Army on Dixwell Ave. in Hamden. Someone has seemed to drop off a quite good CD collection recently and I've been going back once or twice a week to check it out.

I hit up Savers in Orange as well and then they informed me they were going to be taking out all the CDs and replacing them with all fresh stock. Man was I excited. I left and then came back  an hour later. To my surprise there was a ton of great Jazz CDs and plenty of good Rock as well. I put myself on a "spending limit". Who isn't these days? Well when I returned home and told my wife what I passed up she said "go back!" and I did, and returned with another stack of CDs.

I seem to remember when Vinyl was leaving the mainstream it was pretty easy as people were throwing them away and giving them to the thrift stores. Much like the way people are passing up the CDs for the mp3 today. The popularity of the vinyl again has made it harder to search and find the gems we used to be able to in these thrift stores. So now, with CDs being dumped and before they become collectible I may as well buy them up before the good stuff becomes more rare and harder to find.

Bert Scheider Passes At Age 78

Television and movie producer Bert Schneider died Monday, December 12th of natural causes at age 78.

Schneider along with Bob Rafelson were responsible for creating the Monkees and bringing them to the NBC network. Personally selecting each member of the group themselves.

Schneider and Rafelson would later go on to produce legendary Hollywood movies such as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and The Last Picture Show.

Azure Blue

Time doesn't always allow me to listen to music at home. Most of my music listening is at work. I also started to take public transportation to work so I dont have to pay $125 a month for parking. The city bus does just fine. Picks me up 3 house from where I live and drops me a block from where I work. This has afforded me my own time to throw on the headphones and ignore all the people around me.

One such album I have been enjoying the last couple days is Azure Blue's "Rule of Thirds" which came out at the end of last month on UK Indie label Matinee Records. Matinee has put out consistently quality material since its inception. Azure Blue is no different from the rest in that department.

Azure Blue is a solo project from  Tobias Isaksson of Swedish pop group Irene. This release took a couple listens but now it has reached one of those points. The point like when I discover something fantastic is going on here. A band comes around every so often and hits me like that. R.E.M., Stereolab, The Smiths, last year it was The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. This happens every so often. I think this band may have made that list.

Great melody, great synth work and top notch song writing.  "The Catcher In The Rye" (my personal favorite here) starts off sounding like Duran Duran but goes in a completely different direction when the rest of the music kicks in. "Dreamy Eyes" has an 80s Cure drum beat but with great keyboards and vocals. Lyrically I think this guy is on to something.

Hey Hey, my love for the Monkees continues 25 years later

The year was 1986, twenty years after the Monkees debuted on national TV. MTV was running the Monkees weekend and aired every episode. I sat there and watched every single episode and fell in love with what I saw. The music, the humor, everything. The Monkees that same year released a best of compilation "Then And Now...The Best of The Monkees" with the new single "That Was Then, This Is Now". Now of course the new material did not even come close to the classic material and was just a way to cash in. But this was a new opening to me for pop music pre mebeing born. At that point all I heard was Elvis and whatever my mother played. Which at the time was a lot of oldies radio but never heard the Monkees before.
1987 and the Monkees come to the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, CT. About a half hour from where I grew up in Woodbridge, CT. "Weird" Al Yankovic is the opening act and the concert is a blast.
Fast forward to 2008 (?) and my wife and I go and see Micky Dolenz at Mohegan Sun Casino. I didn't know what to think about this show but when he hit the stage all thoughts and worries were gone. The 65 year old Dolenz came out and put on one hell of a performance. Playing some great Monkees classics and covers from the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and others. Afterword he came out and signed autographs for everyone and he had to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. Very conversational and picture friendly.

I have had the opportunity to meet Peter Tork as well when I saw him and his band Shoe Suede Blues about a year prior.
He played a small club in Milford, CT called Daniel Street. Now he came out and played a bunch of blues standards, Monkees cuts and cover songs. A great performance and he can really put on a show.

After the show he came out to sign stuff and take photos. I have heard this from other people but he wasn't very pleasent. He signed my picture and handed it back and no conversation. It didn't effect much but I was looking forward to meeting him. I still listen to his music and enjoy it.

CHRISTMAS TREASURY VOLUME III

Net labels seem to be the hot thing over the last year or so. Offering music as a free download instead of actually printing a product to help spread the word of your band doesn't seem like a bad idea. After all, who doesn't like free stuff? With the emergance of Bandcamp, where certain artist can give music away for free or charge a small amount is great exposure. Holiday Records has put out some fantastic indie pop releases. The CHRISTMAS TREASURY series  being the annual seasonal compilation is something of a joy every year.

Being only somewhat familiar with a couple of the artists on this years release, and unfamiliar with the rest. Church Library start off the comp. with a good rendition of "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree" which makes me love this style of music. I have heard them before and this just adds to the goodness. Very nice female vocals.

Palms On Fire, a band I am only vaugely familiar with cover "Christmas Waltz".  Enjoyable enough.

This is the first time I have ever heard Greater Varsa. "Elk" is the song and it's short and eerie number. Again, enjoyable enough and would make me look into hearing more of the group.

Longtime Holiday artist The Arctic Flow return with the dreamy dark shoegazing pop with their rendition of "Do You Hear What I Hear". I always look forward to hearing from The Arctic Flow and most releases youcan find for free which is even more enjoyable.

All the bands featured:
Greater Varsa, Palms on Fire, Saints & Children, Acorn Boys, Historical Society, Church Library, The Arctic Flow
and Francis of Nome.

holidayrecords.net for free download.

One Man's Trash...

Thrift stores and junk shops seem to go hand in hand with record collectors these days. There is a special feeling when going through a rack of dirty old moldy records for an hour or so and reaching the bottom of a rack and finding that special lost gem.

Living in the New Haven, Connecticut area I have several thrift stores in any direction within ten to fifteen minutes of my home. Which makes for exciting Saturday or Sunday morning adventures with the family. And can also lead up to a decent amount of spending sometimes.

Being a lover of all sorts of music this can sometimes be a great time. I've recently stepped from not only searching through vinyl to the CD's as well. Wow! I'm stepping into the 90's. With people dumping all their old CD's in favor of digital downloads. I've never been a huge CD person I must admit, I usually bought the vinyl version of something over the  CD and owned very few CD's.

Recently,  while going through the CD bins I have been discovering some great stuff. From some obscure German electronic group to an odd SubPop release, to hard to find CD singles to a great Jazz collection. Sometimes even taking risks soley based on the record label or hearing of the name. I have purchased close to 200 CD's in the last few months hunting through these stores. And Don't plan on stopping anytime soon. After all $1-$3 max a CD really isn't that bad.

Ela Orleans Digital Single

This is a free 3 song download available from beko digital single label. Beko puts out some fine free digital downloads every Monday, and this is no exception.
The first track "In The Night" is a psych pop jem with swirling organs and a great groove to it.
Track 2 & 3 "Nocturne" & " Song For Beko After It's Dead" are both slow synth heavy and experimental ambient tracks. Something I enjoyed tremendously about this release. I think I am going to really enjoy hearing more from them.
As mentioned before and as always this available for free download from beko-dsl.com.

Show Alert!!!

Cafe Nine December 30th 9PM $5 Cover

The Tyler Trudeau Attempt
The Field Recordings
The Inclined Plane

A great night of indie pop!

R.E.M.

It's been close to three months since the break up of R.E.M. One of my favorite bands in high school and too this day and age . The announcement came September 21st from the bands website they were "calling it a day as a band". I didn't really know what to think. Very few bands have had the kind of impact on me they have. Ramones, Stereolab, Housemartins, The Smiths, Radiohead and of course R.E.M. are the most important bands in the world, at least according to me.

I remember hearing them as a young child during th earlier days of MTV. The video for So. Central Rain would play somewhat regularly. Of course I was 8 at the time and this kind of music had no effect on me. Fast forward to 1991 and Out of Time is hitting record store shelves and Losing My Religion is on regular rotation on every radio station and MTV. I am in junior high school and this band pretty much takes over my life and influences the way I look at rock music from there on in.

I go out of course and buy every record, single and import I could find of them. I was obsessed. Today I look at Out of Time a different way than I did then. I still love it, but prefer Murmur and Reckoning over anything else they have done.

When I heard of the break up my heart sunk. I was just about to leave work for home when my wife sent me an article of the break up. That ride home I sat and thought about all the great R.E.M. moments. They sure had a lot of great ones, from Michael Stipe singing a duet with 10,000 Maniacs on LuLu's To SIr With Love to the MTV Unplugged to their work with the late Warren Zevon in the Hindu Love Gods to Peters chiming guitar on Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians Perspex Island to every Saturday Night Live performance.

I was pleased to hear they were going to put out the Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982 - 2011 collection. A career spanning collection which I have to say fell short of my expectations. Of course I always say "I should've put that collection, it could have been so much better". The reality is if I did that it would not have fit on 2 discs. 4, maybe 6 disc set. My idea when doing a career spanning collection is to dig deeper. B-sides, odd takes, live cuts. But I guess that isn't geared toward those kinds of fans anway. So it does the job for everyone that has heard them on the radio over the years and comes with three tracks recorded before the break up.

I will still miss this band and look forward to anything they may do in the future.